Saturday, October 3, 2009

Llampu trek to the Jungle we go!!!!

Today is a big day…. Students are coming out of their homestays and are meeting at the program house this am for a day of trek planning and prep! They will take on more responsibility in planning for food and gear and doing a BIG food shop today in the Saturday market.We head out tomorrow morning for the Llampu circuit just outside of town. Our trek Oct 4-12 trekking… we plan on leaving from Sorata and doing most of the Llampu circuit trek going the ‘reverse’ way that most guide books describe. Our first night we will camp near Laguna San Francisco at about 4,6000 meters. Making our way to Ancoma, then descending to the jungle… (9 days, with a layover day for solo).

We will arrive in the town of Gaunay. On the 12th and have a layover day to shower hopefully post a yak, and treat ourselves to icecream food, then leave the 14th to descend the Rio Beni (a river) taking two nights and traveling by boat during the day and stopping to visit waterfalls a rubber tapper, and doing hikes in the jungle. We will arrive in Pilon Laja’s the 16th where we will spend a week with a couple communities doing service. This will really be a challenging place. Hot, humid and very different living conditions. We plan to help with an aqueduct system here for clean drinking water. The 24th of October we’ll head down to a larger town of Rurre to regroup, rest, and food shop for our time in Tocana.

To say the least we will be on the road and in extremely rugged areas. The varied climate from the high mountain air to the hot humid jungle will be a drastic change, but so interesting to compare and contrast and to slowly realize our changes because we will be walking through it. We hope to have internet access in Gaunay October 12 or 13 and again when we get to Rurre the 24th or 25th.We will update when we can as we will be anxious to share our experiences! Knowing communication will be few and far between will be a big change from our recent time in Sorata.